Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

So, let me start by saying that this has been my most favorite Harry Potter movie so far! Randomly, I went to the theater and saw it with my parents. FYI, seeing a movie with your parents is always great because they pay for everything :)! Which leads me to the giant slurpee I drank while watching the movie because they paid for that as well....

I saw this on Sunday July 26th. That day it was in the 80's in Seattle, I was about 38 weeks pregnant and my feet were swollen to the size of tennis balls. It was lovely. So, seeing a movie in an air conditioned theater enjoying a cold drink was just what the doctor ordered!

Now let me explain the pictures. Every time I see a Harry Potter movie, I am faced with an internal battle. Who do I love more Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley (so adorable!) or Alan Rickman as Severus Snape (so naughty!)? This movie was just the same. I still can't decide. Although, Ron's arms did look pretty nice in this movie...and I can say that because he's over 18 now :). Anyways, the pictures above represent my little love triangle. Is it a love triangle if I want them both to just lust after me and I get to pick which one I want at will? Hmm...probably not. And I should probably get on to the movie insteading of just divulging my school girl fantasies....

The Half Blood Prince takes place during the kids 6th year at Hogwarts and they are finally old enough to have the hormones a flowing! There is a lot of relationship set-up going on during the movie. You see Harry begin to fall for Ginny (there is even a kiss, very cute!) and the drama that unfolds between Ron and Hermione (Hermione is none too happy when Ron starts dating/snogging Lavendar Brown). I must say that these were all some of my favorite parts of the movie. I think the movie got a lot of flack for having more love story and less plot but honestly, I'd have watched the movie for 4 hours even if it were nothing but love story...it was that good!

There were 2 parts of the film that brought tears to my eyes. Okay, I'm not going to lie...I was full on bawling :). Both of these were Ron and Hermione relationship related. I cried when he first kissed Lavendar in front of Hermione and she left crying to Harry. I also cried when he said her name in the hospital while he was knocked out. Boo-ya! See ya Lavendar! Sadly, I did not cry when Dumbledore died :(. Sorry, I was expecting it people! That was one of the only things I actually did remember from reading the book. My mom was actually giving me crap about not crying during the "right" part. She's like, "For pete's sake! Ron and Hermione get together in the next book you know!" I know...even though I still haven't read it. Oops!

Now on to a few other things I enjoyed about this movie. The first is Jim Broadbent as Professor Slughorn. I thought he did fabulously instilling both a likability and a little bit of sleaziness to the character. And while I knew I'd seen him in movies before, I had to IMDB him. He also played Bridget Jones' dad in the movies and Zigler from Moulin Rouge. Okay, now I need to watch Moulin Rouge again.... Also, while I know it's not her first Potter movie, can I just mention how great Helena Bonham Carter is at playing a crazy person?!

There wasn't really anything I didn't enjoy about Half Blood Prince. It was well executed, the story and effects were great, and the 2 and a half hours just flew by. I didn't have to pee once! (which was a giant feat considering the being pregnant and the slurpee that was the size of my head)

Bruno

I must say that I have no idea why I picked this as the first movie to review. On July 24th (my last day of work), I wanted to have a little celebration so I invited a few friends over for a barbecue and a movie. The options were Bruno or The Hangover and since everyone except for me and Stacia had already seen The Hangover, we decided on Bruno.

In case anyone hasn't heard of the movie, I'll give a brief (and probably somewhat inaccurate) synopsis. Basically, in the movie Sacha Baron Cohen plays Bruno, an overtly homosexual fashion icon from Austria. Well, he makes an fool of himself at a European runway fashion show and is ousted from the fashion industry. So....he decides to come to America to try and become a celebrity. The rest of the movie is basically the disaster that ensues from this venture.

Now if anyone hasn't seen Borat or Sacha Baron Cohen in action, you need to know that his movies are him acting like these characters in real life and then filming peoples reactions. So, basically they are pretty much unscripted and a lot of times uncomfortable to watch (at least for me). For example, in Bruno he is at the airport and pulls a cardboard box with holes in it off of the baggage claim carousel. He then proceeds to open the box in front of all of the other people waiting and pull out a 3 year old African child. As you can imagine, there is a lot of shock from the other passengers! Antics like these are pervasive throughout the entire movie.

One thing that is interesting about these movies is that if you can get past all of the ridiculousness, they have a strong underlying theme and message about society. While there is probably more than one, the main thing that I saw in Bruno was the obsession in our society with celebrity. In one scene he is interviewing parents to appear in an ad with his new adopted son. He is asking them to have their children do the most idiotic things and they all agree with them! For instance, he asks one mom how much her daughter weighs. She responds, 30 lbs. He asks if she could have her lose 10 lbs in a week and she says, "of course!" He then says if she can't would she be willing to have her daughter get liposuction to lose the last few pounds. And she agrees to that! WTF?! Sorry, but I was hoping and praying that this in no way could be for real. And as an expectant parent, I was both sickened and saddened by this.

Deep down, I think these are the kind of reactions Cohen is after. While he appears to be just parading around like an idiot, I think he might actually be a genius. He definitely takes his opinions and portrays them in ways that that are shocking and often crude. Which leads me to the one part of the movie that HAS to be mentioned...the male nudity.

Well, I had heard that the movie featured lots of male full frontal nudity (maybe that's why I picked it over The Hangover :) ). So, in honor of this I decided that we should have bratwurst for dinner! I figured why not make it a sausage fest all the way around! There was actually a lot less than I expected. There was basically just one scene...but it was long! And no, I'm not referring to the genitalia per se, just the length of the scene :). And of course, it was crude...and a little bit funny.

So, after all of this nonsense what did I actually think of the movie? I thought it was okay. Climactic, right? There is one main problem I have with both Borat and Bruno and that is the fact that Cohen talks in very thick accents throughout both movies. Because of this, I can only understand what he's saying about 60% of the time (yes, I realize that this makes me seem 90 years old). This causes me to miss a lot of the jokes or take way too long to actually comprehend what I'm hearing and by that time they aren't funny anymore. Also, I'm not normally excited by humor that is derived from putting other people in uncomfortable situations. I'm more of a slapstick, poop and fart joke type of girl. So, if you're into crude uncomfortable humor, this may be the movie for you!

Now even for dud like me, this movie did have a few highlights. One scene where I laughed out loud was when a "reformed" gay man was talking to Bruno about how to become straight. He was saying things like, "I know women can be irritating but they're good for us," and "you just have to find one that you can stand." Also a doozie was when he said, "I know they talk a lot and sometimes never get back to their original point, but that's just something we have to deal with." I will say that I was almost peeing my pants at this point. Fabulous!

So, I would say if you don't mind crude uncomfortable humor give Bruno a try! But if you're easily offended in the least, this probably isn't the movie for you. Also, I think watching it with a drink or two in you wouldn't hurt! Enjoy....

The Lists

Tomorrow is my last day of work at my 9 to 5 job. My husband and I are expecting our first baby within the next few weeks. So, while I'm waiting for him to arrive, I decided that now would be a great time to catch up on some movies. So now the big question...what do I watch?

I googled "must see movies" and came up with tons of lists! Yahoo has a 100 movies to see before you die, Will Ferrell has a list of his top 14, and it seems like everyone and their brother has an opinion on what you NEED to see! So, I thought rather than take advice from Yahoo, why not ask those closest to me what they enjoy.

I emailed a few of my friends (movie buffs especially) and asked them what their Top 10 MUST SEE movies were. Boy did I not know what I was in for!

First of all, I found out most people can't limit it to 10. While a few started out with 10, most just gave me lists of ALL of their favorites. Some were even nice enough to categorize them! However, then they'd think some more and send me additions. Ooh! And you have to see this one! And this one too!!

What I did get were some great lists. Some overlapped, some I'd seen, some I'd never even heard of! But all in all some great suggestions, and I think more movies than I could watch in a year!

Here's a synopsis of what I got:

From Tiffany
Drama
Flatliners
A Few Good Men
The Lost Boys
Pretty In Pink
The Godfather
To Kill a Mockingbird
Rocky
The Shawshank Redemption
Unforgiven
Vertigo
The Sixth Sense
Say Anything
Schindler's List
Legends of the Fall
Seven Years in Tibet
Twelve Monkeys
The Breakfast Club
Charade
Tombstone
Ordinary People
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight

Fantasy/Sci Fi
Labyrinth
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Star Wars (the original three)
All of the Harry Potters
Legend

Musical
The Sound of Music
Godspell
Jesus Christ Superstar
Into the Woods
Annie
My Fair Lady
The Producers (the original)
The Prince of Egypt

Comedy (some dark)
The Royal Tenenbaums
Death To Smoochy
This Is Spinal Tap
Better Off Dead
Snatch
Annie Hall
Top Secret!
UHF
Drop Dead Gorgeous

From Sara
Comedy
Extras (Seasons 1&2)
Jeeves & Wooster (TV show)
Black Adder (TV show)
The Full Monty
Raising Arizona
Driving Lessons
Waking Ned Divine
The Big Lebowski
Strictly Ballroom
Stranger Than Fiction
Mrs. Henderson Presents
The Holiday

Documentary
Mad Hot Ballroom
Wordplay
The Aristocrats
Jesus Camp
Spellbound

Action/Drama
Richard III (w/ Ian McClellan)
L4yer Cake
DeLovely
The Departed
Good Night and Good Luck
Match Point
Shopgirl
Charlie Wilson’s War
Sleuth
Alfie
Children of Men
RocknRolla

Foreign
Motorcycle Diaries
Amelie
Chocolat (I don’t know if this is really foreign)
Paris J’Taime

Indie
Junebug
Smart People
The Squid and the Whale
Darjeeling Unlimited
The Syrian Bride
Quinceanera
Shortbus

From Christi
The Proposal
Up
Count of Monte Cristo
Gran Torino
Big Fish
The Holiday
The Bourne Movies
Holes

From Carlie
Amelie
Children of Men
Paul Blart Mall Cop
Stardust
The Secret Life of Bees
All of Weeds/Big Love/Carnivale Seasons
Son of Rambow
The Fall
I Love You Man
Year One
Any Molly Ringwald 80's flick

From Whitney
Flight of the Navigator
Labyrinth
Best in Show
The Great Gatsby
The O.C. (tv)
Big Love (tv)
Gossip Girl (tv)
Greek (tv)
West Side Story
Bring it On
All of the X-Men movies
All of the Spiderman movies
Parenthood
That Thing You Do
The Princess Bride
The Three Amigos
Life is Beautiful
Dan in Real Life
Amelie
Hope Floats
Serendipity
Moulin Rouge
Jesus Christ Superstar
Business of Being Born
Pearl Harbor
Singing in the Rain
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
All four Indiana Jones
All three Mighty Ducks
Fargo

From Stacia
Ghost Ship
Cube
The Life of David Gale
Matchstick Men
White Oleander
Brazil
The Departed
The Prestige
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

So, I haven't even decided how I'm going to begin to choose which ones to watch first. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Needless to say, I have a huge project ahead of me.... Let the movie watching begin!